Exhibitions
Events
On display
Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush / live piano
Film
Past event
Philip Carter Family Auditorium
Free
The whole family will love the heart-warming hilarity of Charlie Chaplin in his silent-film masterpiece The Gold Rush (1925), which charts a prospector’s search for fortune in the Klondike.
This film will be presented with live piano accompaniment by outrageously talented Christchurch musician Frankie Daly who will improvise the soundtrack to this classic comedy for over an hour straight! Not to be missed – drama, laughter and beauty in volumes.
Frankie is a recent graduate of the Ara Jazz School, and absolutely nailed it with last week's screening-performance of Buster Keaton's The General to our audience's great delight and amazement. Musically it’s not what you would expect - it will be a whole other experience, and very much Frankie's own creation.
69 mins / black and white
Related reading: Family event, Film, Music
Exhibition
Hidden Light: Early Canterbury and West Coast Photography
25 August 2019
Uncovering the remarkable, largely unseen work of early New Zealand photographers.
Commentary
Portraits for the Million
Scottish-born brothers John Tait (1836–1907) and Alexander Tait (1839–1913) established themselves as photographers in gold rush Hokitika in about 1866, the period in which Catton’s The Luminaries is set. While building up a broader picture of photographers for the Hidden Light: Early Canterbury and West Coast Photography book and exhibition, I recalled an interview with the novelist at around the time of her 2013 Man Booker Prize success, and her mention of having restricted her reading for a year before starting the novel to nothing published after 1866, giving the National Library’s Papers Past credit as a vital source. The trails and condensed stories of many of the photographers in Hidden Light were largely brought together via this same indispensable means.
Event
Artists' Toolbox Term 2 2024
Do you know a young person who loves to make art? Artists' Toolbox is a seven-week after-school course that runs each term on Wednesdays.
Designed for 8-12 year olds, the lessons cover the ‘how to’ skills that every young artist can use to develop their artwork. Students will draw, paint, print and sculpt their way through a series of activities that will teach them the artists' tools such as tone, depth, space and colour. Perfect for the young artist who is keen to sharpen their skills. Each term is a slightly different programme and all materials are provided.
Event
Oh Baby, It's Art!
A free, guided art tour especially for parents with babies. Buggies welcome.
Event
Artist Pick: My Winnipeg
A movie selection from artist Ilish Thomas. Fact, fantasy and memory are woven seamlessly together in this portrait of film-maker Guy Maddin's home town of Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Event
Rangatuone: Music from The Collective Imagination
A collaborative project between composer Riki Pirihi and the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra.
Event
Art Safari
A chance for pre-schoolers to paint, glue, print, stamp and colour without making a mess at home. Art Safari is designed for our youngest budding artists between 2-4 years old.
Exhibition
Māori Moving Image ki Te Puna o Waiwhetū
An exhibition championing film, animation and video art made by several generations of Māori artists.
Notes
A is for Abstract...
Jairus, Hault, Murtaza, Acacia, Jessica, Peteseta, Brook and Aiyanna from Bishopdale Primary School brought their A-game to the Gallery last week when they came to see our show 'Gordon Walters: New Vision'.
Notes
Bishopdale School Rulez
These Year 6 students at Bishopdale Primary School have knocked it out of the park with their AMAZING glitter artworks from our new ART-TASTIC activity book.
Notes
Countdown to Fifteen
Fifteen is our birthday party (guess how old we are…) and it’s less than two weeks away! It’s also the opening event for Tony de Lautour’s US V THEM, which is our big winter exhibition. We asked curator Peter Vangioni and visitor programmes coordinator Amy Marr what they’re most excited about in the incredible line-up for this grand birthday bash.
Notes
Been to some lame ‘youth’ events lately?
Now’s your chance to help create a cool event for you and your friends!
The Mix is Christchurch’s Art Gallery bi-monthly late-night event – an interactive mix of art, music, film and good people. We want to run a Mix designed, curated and for under 18s – ReMix.
Commentary
Laurence Aberhart
New Zealand artist Laurence Aberhart is internationally regarded for his photographs of unpeopled landscapes and interiors. He photographs places redolent with the weight of time, which he captures with his century-old large-format camera and careful framing. But he’s always taken more spontaneous photographs of people too, particularly in the years he lived in Christchurch and Lyttelton (1975–83) when he photographed his young family, his friends and occasionally groups of strangers. ‘If I lived in a city again,’ he says, ‘I would photograph people. One of the issues is that I even find it difficult to ask people whether I can photograph a building, so to ask to photograph them – I’m very reticent. I also know that after a number of minutes of waiting for me to set cameras up and take exposure readings and so on, people can get rather annoyed. So it’s not a conscious thing, it’s more just an accident of the way I photograph.’
Notes
Gallery Happenings: Grayson Gilmour
In early March we were lucky enough to have the incredibly talented Grayson Gilmour performing at the Gallery, supported by the equally talented Purple Pilgrims and New Dawn. I love these gigs, but there is a lot of work to be done behind the scenes to make sure that, by the time the public walk in the door, the foyer is gig ready. The process normally feels like a long, slow marathon with a sprint at the final corner. So here’s a guide to how you too can get the NZI Foyer gig-ready in five (or six) easy steps.
Interview
J.G. Thirlwell
J.G. Thirlwell is man of many monikers and even more projects: from the epic avant-garde electro-rock of his thirty-five-year Foetus act to scoring orchestral work; creating sound installations to writing cartoon soundtracks. Fellow sonic artist, Jo Burzynska caught up with the Melbourne-born but long-time New York-resident composer/producer/performer at the Gallery before the opening performance of his first ever New Zealand tour.
Notes
What's the difference between a piano and an onion?
Answer: No one cries when you chop up a piano.
Apparently that's only the third worst piano joke of all time...
Notes
Getting Older - Flying Nun
November sees the 30th anniversary of my favourite record label, Flying Nun Records.
Notes
Playing to the Faithful
The 2011 Christchurch Arts Festival has been full of highlights, from theatre to dance to the visual arts. However, it's been the music that has made the biggest impression on me.
Notes
Number 1 Evil, Number 2 Evil, Number 3 Evil…
Finally, the chance to listen to some loud rock music!
Notes
The Satara Player by Petrus van der Velden
Things are not always what they seem. What looks like the result of an artistic foray into exotic lands is, in fact, an 1894 portrait of a Christchurch busker who posed in the studio of Petrus van der Velden.